Chronic Disease

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Please see attached response for better formatting, which is also presented below. Supplemented with a highly informative article on the effects of diet and exercise on the prognosis of diabetes.

RESPONSE:

Interesting Assignment! Have you given some thought to the chronic disease that you want to focus? Since you did not include a preference, let's look at diabetes. (a) through (e) can act as a tentative outline for your paper. You will need to include an introduction and conclusion as well.

Introduction (introduce topic; include a purpose statement: The purpose of this paper is to: )

a. Defining Diabetes

Diabetes is a lifelong condition where either your body does not produce enough insulin, or your body cannot use the insulin it produces. Your body needs insulin to change the sugar from food into energy. There are three main types of diabetes:

· Type 1, where the body makes little or no insulin; which is needed to take sugar (glucose) from the blood to the cells.
· Type 2, where the body makes insulin but cannot use it properly; and
· Gestational Diabetes, where the body is not able to properly use insulin during pregnancy. This type of diabetes goes away after the baby is born. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dc-ma/diabete/index_e.html

Type 1 diabetes mellitus used to be called insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, or juvenile-onset diabetes mellitus, because it usually begins in childhood or adolescence.
· In type 1 diabetes mellitus, the pancreas releases no insulin at all because the body has destroyed the cells that produce it (islet cells). The patient therefore relies on treatment with insulin.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the most common form of diabetes. It used to be called non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, or adult onset diabetes because it usually begins in adulthood.
· In type 2 diabetes, patients can still produce insulin, but they do not produce enough and/or their bodies cannot use it properly.

Another form of diabetes, known as gestational diabetes, occurs in some women during pregnancy. It is a temporary condition caused by pregnancy and usually occurs in the later stages, once the baby has formed but is still growing.

Nine out of ten people with diabetes have Type 2. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dc-ma/diabete/index_e.html

b. Risk factors and incidence

The risk factors include age, genetics, drinking high quantities of alcohol, and obesity. Age is a risk factor for both juvenile and adult onset diabetes. Genetics also plays a role. For example, ten genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes, a disease which impacts more than 170 million people worldwide, have been identified or confirmed by a U.S.-Finnish team led by scientists at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=69174

Incidence of Diabetes, United States, 2005

1.5 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 years or older in 2005 (also see chart of incidence rate at http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/statistics/#11

Seventeen million people in the United States have diabetes. Key to the increasing prevalence of diabetes is the rapid growth of the disease in high-risk populations such as African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. The growth in obesity, as well as an aging population, have also contributed to this increase.2,3 http://clinical.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/22/4/190#BDY

Total Prevalence of Diabetes in the United States, All Ages, 2005
Total: 20.8 million people-7 percent of the population-have diabetes.
Diagnosed: 14.6 million people
Undiagnosed: 6.2 million people http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/statistics/#7

Prevalence of Diagnosed Diabetes in People Aged 20 Years or Younger, United States, 2005

· About 176,500 people aged 20 years or younger have diabetes. This group represents 0.22 percent of all people in this age group.
· About one in every 400 to 600 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes.
· Although type 2 diabetes can occur among youth, the nationally representative data that would be needed to monitor diabetes trends in youth by type are not available. Clinically based reports and regional studies suggest that type 2 diabetes, although still rare, is being diagnosed more frequently in children and adolescents, particularly in American Indians, African Americans, and Hispanic/Latino Americans. ...